HIGH WIND WARNING HAS BEEN HOISTED FOR WORCESTER COUNTY… WIND ADVISORIES ARE UP FOR THE REST OF THE REGION… STRONG TO POTENTIALLY DAMAGING WESTERLIES LATER THIS MORNING INTO EARLY AFTERNOON… THE SEESAW CONTINUES… HAPPY NEW YEAR! (8:30am Tues)

Good morning everybody, and Happy New Year to you all! I had a great time at First Night in Northampton last night, and I hope whatever you did was an enjoyable and/or peaceful time for you.

For today’s weather, we are already seeing gusts over 35mph in Worcester, MA, and strong wind gusts are expected to develop after 10am and into the early afternoon as a cold front swings through and high pressure builds in quickly from the west. The resultant pressure gradient could allow west winds to gust up to 45-50mph in WMass, SVT and northern CT, and even up to 55-60mph across CMass/Worcester County! Therefore, some sporadic power outages are possible.

It is very mild out right now, and while some mid 30s are noted in the CT River Valley, many places are well into the 40s with some low 50s.

Enjoy your high temps for the day, because they are PLUMMETING as the day wears on, and we’ll land in the teens for lows tonight! At least sunshine will be developing as the day wears on.

For tomorrow, high pressure builds into the region more completely, and we will enjoy mostly sunny skies with highs in the upper 20s to low 30s and lows in the low 20s as clouds increase.

Now it appears that a disturbance will move through Wednesday night into Thursday morning with light snow, and the potential for up to an inch of accumulation.

This whips through Thursday morning, leaving us with a partly sunny to mostly cloudy day with highs near freezing and lows Thursday night in the 20s.

Milder air follows this storm for Friday, with fair weather and highs near 40 degrees.

This Wednesday night system has pushed the arrival time of our late week storm to Friday night into Saturday with mainly rain expected in a mild air mass, although some freezing rain is possible along the Rt. 2 corridor and northward early Saturday morning.

Sunday into early next week looks mostly sunny with temperatures starting to cool from the low 40s late in the weekend down into the 30s for early next week, by which time another storm system is possible.

Have a great first day of 2019!